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Energy and Environment

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RAND energy and environmental analyses examine the implications of existing and proposed energy policies on the environment. Building on a long history of policy research, RAND helps balance the need for environmental protections and economic development.

President Obama's executive order that directs federal agencies to plan and build for higher flood levels as they construct new projects in flood-prone regions will affect hundreds of billions of dollars of future public works projects. In an ideal world, planners would estimate the benefits and costs for each project, taking into account everything from the details of the local landscape to the potential for adaptive responses over time.

Air pollution has been one of the most harmful consequences of China's last three decades of economic transformation and growth. China must address its air-pollution problem soon, but approaches to improve air quality come at a cost.

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There are key takeaways from the Ebola outbreak, Syria's chemical weapons, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The U.S. and its international partners should view these events as learning opportunities that could help improve preparedness and response capabilities before the next crisis strikes.

The authors analyze the practice of tankering fuel, which seeks to lower total fuel costs by having aircraft carry excess fuel when traveling from locations where fuel is cheaper than it is at the destination.

The U.S. Department of Energy is now planning separate repositories for commercial waste and the waste from the military's nuclear weapons production instead of disposing of both in the same repository as originally intended. Decoupling different parts of the nuclear waste problem is a small but positive step forward.

This issue of RAND Review reports on smart-grid technologies, the nuclear deal with Iran, the education crisis among Syrian children, diversity in the biomedical scientific workforce, and recent philanthropic gifts to RAND.

Provides an overview of RAND's impact in the Middle East in the areas of supporting youth, health and health care, education, energy and environment, labor market reform and private-sector development, capacity-building, and planning for the future.

A modernized, “smart” grid could change how much you pay for electricity, where it comes from, and how likely you are to lose it in a summer storm. But has the reality of the smart grid kept pace with the promise?

Researchers develop a framework for measuring the resilience of energy distribution systems and summarize the state of metrics for resilience of the electric power, refined oil, and natural gas distribution systems.

The authors developed and applied a methodology that leveraged detailed combat effectiveness models to account for the operational energy needs of an Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) 2020 and the current ABCT conducting combat missions.

Reducing aviation fuel use is an ongoing goal for military and civil operators, and Air Mobility Command is feeling increasing pressure to further reduce fuel use by implementing and following known best practices.

Reducing aviation fuel use is an ongoing goal for military and civil operators, and Air Mobility Command is feeling increasing pressure to further reduce fuel use by implementing and following known best practices.

Examines the relationship between federal funding and research productivity, as revealed through publications and citations, for a sample of academic researchers with sustainable energy technology interests.

In what ways will the mandate, role, funding, and operations of state departments of transportation be affected by changes in energy supply and demand in the next 30 to 50 years? Different supply-and-demand scenarios will require robust decision-making techniques.

China's economic transformation over the last three decades has produced potentially deadly air pollution its people inhale every day. But an investment of $215 billion annually could substantially reduce pollution, lessen its drag on productivity, spare the lungs of countless people, and save lives.

Cheaper oil, government interference and market dynamics jeopardize the future of Russian and Caspian energy. To be globally competitive, the big four Eurasian producers — Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan — should let the private sector play a greater role and make more decisions on commercial, rather than political grounds.

Air pollution has been one of the most harmful consequences of China's last three decades of economic transformation and growth. China must address its air-pollution problem soon, but approaches to improve air quality come at a cost.

In South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, investments made over the past 20 years have created a dump with a difference. Rather than being a blight on the neighborhood of Mariannhill, the state-of-the-art Mariannhill Landfill Conservancy is an asset.

RAND will provide research and analysis for a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investment by Chevron in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) K-12 education and energy-sector workforce development training in the Appalachia region.

Senior Engineer

Julie Kim is a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation. She also served as director of Asia-Pacific Infrastructure initiative from 2005 to 2007. Prior to joining RAND in 2005, she was the founding executive director of Collaboratory for Research in Global Project at Stanford University. Prior…

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